The Menexenus is a Socratic dialogue of Plato, traditionally included in the seventh tetralogy along with the Greater and Lesser Hippias and the Ion. The characters are Socrates and Menexenus, who is not to be confused with Socrates\' son Menexenus. The Menexenus of Plato\'s dialogue appears also in his Lysis and the Phaedo. In the Lysis, he is identified as the "son of Demophon" (207b).\r\nThe Menexenus consists mainly of a lengthy funeral oration, satirizing the one given by Pericles in Thucydides\' account of the Peloponnesian War. In this way the Menexenus is unique among the Platonic dialogues, in that the actual \'dialogue\' serves primarily as exposition for the oration. For this reason, perhaps, the Menexenus has come under some suspicion of illegitimacy.\r\nPerhaps the most inter...